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Meet the real Rachel Ward-Lilley

While many of you will be aware of the pivotal role Rachel played in staging the Manchester IWD 2010, few will know about her passion for mountaineering, not to mention all of the other things she manages to fit into her very busy lifestyle. Not only has early 2010 seen her planning and executing the delivery of the IWD event on March 8th, but she has also successfully scaled the 22,841ft of Aconcagua - the highest peak of the Andes and one of the seven summits’. In January, after five days’ acclimatization in Argentina, a break in the weather saw Rachel and 12 climbing colleagues head for the summit – Rachel was one of only five to make it to the top.

Her approach to mountaineering is the same as that to commerce, the cornerstones of which are analysis, preparation, focus and determination. which along with energy she seems to possess in spades.

She seems to relish a challenge (or several): She recently left behind the corporate world where she was Operations Director for a B2B plc to set up a new business venture ZEST, which will launch next month. Set up with her business partner Nick Montague, (with 50 years of experience between them), ZEST will provide executive training to the professional services and SME markets, developing communication skills to directly and positively impact client business results.

As if all this were not enough, Rachel has also just become a coach for secondary school students and teachers using the SUMO principles (www.sume4shcools.co.uk) to help equip learners to achieve their full potential.

We would like to thank Rachel for all her guidance and practical, no-nonsense approach throughout the project and wish her every success with her new ventures.